


shadows

by perhapssoon



Series: what universe is this in again? [1]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Angst, Blood, Eliza has a crush, F/F, I cant write fight scenes, Implied Relationships, Implied Sexual Content, Life Happens, M/M, Modern Assassin AU, More tags to be added, One Sided Relationships, PTSD, Panic Attacks, Torture, Trigger Warnings, WashingDONE, angelica fucks up, george is snooty, john and alex are sneaky, john messes around, no one deserves the title of assassin, reynolds is a little shit (the bad kind), samuel is color blind
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-25
Updated: 2018-05-07
Packaged: 2019-03-09 11:48:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 18,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13480854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perhapssoon/pseuds/perhapssoon
Summary: There was a deep breath and then it was Angelica who spoke.  "Seabury, I swear...""Swear on what? I'm helping you, just accept it.  Maria is cracking, your agent is already half-dead. I'm trying to help, and you think I'm fucking with your brain? Well, I'm sorry, but I can't deal right now.  If anything, I only can get your agent out, now that you keep arguing with me.  Reynolds isn't going to kill his own wife."--Hamilton characters are part of an assassin organization, led by Commander Washington. George Frederick is the top of their target list, and he's proven to be tricky to catch. It'll take the help of a rogue assassin, two messed up relationships, and more ammunition than necessary to take this guy down.orThe Modern Assassin AU Where Shit Goes Down





	1. target

**Author's Note:**

> This story gets better as the plot crawls along.  
> Really. These assassins aren't really "assassins" because they sometimes stay in the open.  
> I don't own any of these characters.  
> And trigger warnings will be mentioned in the notes before hand.

Until today, Angelica Schuyler had never understood why her superiors told her to stay undetected, even after she located her target. She usually went all out with her attacks, whether people around her saw her or not. 

But her instructions were clear. 

"Boss says you gotta stay in the shadows," her current partner, John Laurens, told her. "He can't have you risking yourself like last time."

'Last time' was when Angelica was careless and forgot to pat herself down when she was escaping and only discovered halfway to headquarters that she had a tracking device on her.  She had managed to take a detour, but the event already branded itself into her memory.

Angelica groaned softly. She hated this method of killing; it usually made her resort to poisoning or gassing the target, which in her mind, was a coward's play.  Yes, some assassins did use poison or gas as their main arsenal, but Angelica preferred to be in the thick of things, challenging herself to go out with the biggest bang possible.  In that case, she sometimes used explosives, which Laurens wasn't too keen on.

"Who's our objective?" she asked, turning to face Laurens as well as she could in the cramped space behind a bookshelf.

Laurens typed something into his datapad, and responded, "George Frederick.  Resident asshole, super rich and snobby.  I think he's got his own bodyguard as well -- maybe another assassin? Reports are showing that-"

Angelica snapped her fingers to get his attention.  "Hey, Laurens, that's good enough.  I don't need to hear the reports."

Laurens looked at her, his serious expression catching her off-guard.  "This assassin person racked up a total of ten kills in the past few days.  Most likely at George's command.  So be careful when engaging because we're not the only skilled ones out there."

"You mean  _I'm_  not the only skilled ones out there," Angelica corrected.  "Unless the other assassin is also good at hacking, you probably are still in support.  A good kind of support," she added quickly when Laurens' eyes narrowed slightly.

"Anyways," Laurens turned back to his datapad. "We've got two hours to find George, kill him, take out the other assassin, and get out. Otherwise, Boss' orders are to leave them."

Angelica sighed and leaned back against the wall. Honestly, she wasn't expecting a challenge, despite Laurens' warnings.  She stuffed a loaded syringe into the holster on her arm, tucked a few more knives into her boots and carefully moved out of the cover of the bookshelf.  She was wearing a full gown tonight, which gave her plenty of places to hide weapons.  Laurens had already located George in the ballroom, so Angelica picked up her skirt and hurried toward the large double doors looming in front of her.

She was greeted to a whirl of fabric and music, nearly pushed to the ground by a couple, before she managed to find her target.

George Frederick was standing alone on one side of the room, dressed in clothes that were too fancy, even for Angelica's taste.  The assassin couldn't see anyone else next to him, so she made her approach.

[Be careful out there,] Laurens' voice crackled in her ear. [George is sneaky and manipulative; if he suspects you are up to something, he will be on you at all times.]

"I got this," Angelica murmured back, easing her way through the crowd.

When George saw her, his eyes lit up.  "And who might you be?" he asked courteously.

Angelica had to give him that: he could be charming when he wanted to.

"My name's Angelina Siela," she fibbed.  "Are you George Frederick?"

"Yes, I am," he smiled and bowed to her. "May I have this dance then?"

Angelica hesitated, but Laurens' voice filled her ear.  [Do it, Angelica.  You gotta find out more about him so you know how to take him down.]

Angelica smiled back and curtsied, internally screaming with disgust.  _God, Angelica.  You have terrible taste._

She took his extended arm and he swept her onto the dance floor.  The song playing wasn't fast, so Angelica had time to plan.  If the other assassin was nearby, which he surely was, then she would have no chance here.  She either had to spike George's drink, or risk it and go head-to-head with George's hire.

She then became aware that George was saying her name, and pulled herself out of her thoughts.  "I'm sorry?"

"I was just asking, Angelina, where you're from.  Surely such a fine woman like you lives somewhere a bit less crowded than Manhattan."

Angelica blurted out the first place she could think of.  _Gotta think like a rich person, Angelica._ "No, I live in Boston.  It's much nicer there, with less distractions."

"I agree," George flashed her another smile.  "Nothing like a place far from those  _other_  people."

Angelica forced herself to smile back.  "Indeed."

George suddenly became fixated on something across the room. "My apologies, Angelica, my girlfriend is back. It has been a pleasure to meet you."

"As to you," Angelica replied, trying not to vomit as he kissed her hand and disappeared into the crowd.

She quickly detached herself from the mass movement of people to collect her thoughts.  If her interactions with George was fake, then he was an insanely good actor. Either that or he knew how to really talk to people.   _Etiquette_ , she reminded herself.   _Don't all rich people learn it?_

[That wasn't so bad,] Laurens said.  [It could have been worse.]

"How?"

[You could have actually thrown up.]

Angelica found herself close to laughing, but she held it in, noticing a young man watching her closely from his seat at an empty table.  She wouldn't have thought much of it, except that he was wearing a pair of rather dark, what looked like monoblock shield sunglasses.  

"Shit, who is this guy?" she asked Laurens quietly, without moving her lips.

[I don't know,] was the reply. [It'd be best to stay alert now? Maybe move somewhere else and see if he follows you.]

Angelica couldn't agree with him more. Unnerved by the potential assassin, she edged away from the crowd and towards a nearby hallway.  

"Looking for someone?" a voice came from behind her. 

Angelica whirled around, finding the possible assassin standing behind her.   _How had he managed to move so fast?_

Her hand instinctively flew to her bodice, where she had quite a stash of gases and poisons stored.

The young man smiled, though Angelica couldn't see his eyes, she was sure the expression was genuine.

"Let's take this somewhere else," he suggested, "before anyone suspects." And only then did Angelica realize that his voice sounded  _way_  too young.

Wishing that Laurens would offer her advice in this situation, Angelica followed him to another room, this one sparsely furnished and a lot larger than most rooms she'd been in. The man shut the door and locked it behind them after they entered, which did nothing to calm Angelica's nerves.

"Don't want innocents getting involved, do we?" the assassin asked, his face drawn neutral once more.

Angelica shook her head wordlessly, unable to understand why this guy -- no,  _kid_  -- would take them somewhere private away from all interfering principles.  No regular assassin would do this. If someone was seen as a threat, they would be taken down immediately.

"Name's Samuel Seabury," the assassin extended his hand.  "You're Angelica Schuyler. Would be best to get this over with."

Angelica reluctantly shook his hand before reaching for one of the knives in her boots and slashing her skirt to ribbons with it.  She kicked the fabric aside before assuming a defensive stance, still clutching the knife.  Seabury had not taken up a weapon; he just stood there casually rolling up his sleeves, but Angelica saw his legs tense slightly.

She managed to leap out of the way as he barrelled forward, four short and thin blades appearing in his hand like magic. He threw three of the four at her as she struggled to regain her balance.  The blades embedded themselves into the walls with three closely strung thuds. Angelica stared at her opponent. There was no way he could move that quickly. While she was busy staring, he tossed the fourth blade at her, chopping off the left part of her hair a few inches.

Seabury's mouth stretched into a wide grin. "Keep that up Schuyler, and you'll be dead in no time."


	2. darkness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some Lams stuff. Not too much.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, glad you decided to stick with me through this! I'm still trying. ;-;

Angelica really didn't understand why she was always the one who had to do these things. Hamilton wasn't trusted enough (yet) to lead nor carry out an important field mission, Lafayette had even a harder time staying subtle, Mulligan was away for the week, and her sister, Eliza would probably blow her cover with her fluster. Peggy was too young to join yet, and Boss was very strict with his rules: no one under the age of 18 should be part of a field mission.

Then again, Laurens was with her on this mission; even though he usually stayed in the shadows and provided backup, Angelica was really wishing for some right now.

Another blade struck the wall and stayed there, quivering slightly, the edge reflecting sunlight across the room. Angelica took that moment to get out of the way.

Seabury followed her every move, more knives thudding into the wall as she ran around the room. She wondered for a moment why he didn't use a gun, but she realized that the noise would notify someone. A knife whistled past her ear to hit a painting, ripping the canvas and sending glass everywhere. Angelica picked up one of the larger shards and threw it at Seabury. He managed to dodge the worst of the attack, but the piece of glass ripped into his pants legs.

Angelica could see blood start to flow from the wound.

Seabury gave a laugh that sounded more like a hiss of pain. "You're fast, Schuyler. Let's see if you can go faster."

Limited to weapons that she was less used to in close combat, Angelica was forced to go on defense, using the few amount of furniture either as weapons or shields. She used her knife to slash the legs of a chair, sending them across the room with deadly accuracy. Seabury stepped aside with a smirk and the wooden pieces slammed into the far wall.

But she noticed how his attention was taken away from her for just a moment. Rule of thumb: never turn your back on your opponent, or really, take your eyes off them. If you do, then you're dead. All assassins followed the rule -- unless they were new.

Seabury was a rookie. A rookie! She almost laughed aloud if not for the direness of the situation, because

Seabury, sensing distraction, leaped for her, pulling her down with him.

The two assassins traded blows for a few minutes before Angelica managed to kick him off and pull away. She had a plan now, and she intended to get this over with before anyone suspected anything and came to investigate.

Seabury came at her again, swinging something -- a staff? -- and Angelica managed to bend backwards and avoid the blow. 

She picked up the rest of the chair she mutilated and flung it at Seabury. He rolled aside, but his head turned slightly, watching it.

Angelica fumbled in her bodice for her gas mask, strapped it on, reached into her supply of toxic mist, and threw a vial of it onto the floor between her and Seabury.

Noxious gas filled the room, yellow and poisonous. Angelica backed to the window, listening to Seabury's coughs. She could faintly see his outline against the colored fog, doubled over on the floor, most likely with a pounding headache. She didn't use lethal dose (he was young, younger than her, and she was 20), so she knew that the effects would pass. Silently, she slid open the window and slipped out onto the street below. Maybe leaving the remains of her dress behind wasn't such a good idea, because they would be able to use it against her, but she couldn't go back into the room. She would have to go through the ballroom again, and she was not keen on that idea, especially in her ruined gown.

She could hear voices coming from the window, so she crossed the street and went down a block before she deemed it safe enough to try to get Laurens back online.

"Laurens?" she tried. "You there?"

There was no response.

"Laurens!" she repeated. "I swear, if you're playing a joke on me, I'm gonna haunt you for the rest of your lie; answer me!"

There was still no answer and now she was getting desperate. Laurens never took that long to answer, and if they were on a mission, he definitely wouldn't leave her hanging. Hamilton might, for the fun of it, but never like this.

Laurens was supposed to have gone back to their rendezvous spot, so Angelica slunk her way down a few streets before looking. A few passerby gave her strange looks (most likely for her ripped dress) but she managed to arrive at the rendezvous point (an abandoned train car) without any other trouble. Laurens was nowhere in sight.

That was when she started to get scared. She had failed the mission, she left some of her stuff at George's place, and Laurens was missing. Struggling to calm herself, Angelica fished her phone out of her sleeve and dialed headquarters. 

Hamilton picked up. "Schuyler? That you?"

Her breath escaped in a rush. "Yeah. It's me."

"You okay?" Hamilton sounded slightly worried. 

Angelica cast her gaze around again, as if Laurens would somehow appear, and answered heavily, "No. I failed the mission. Laurens is missing, too."

She heard Hamilton's sharp intake of breath. "Shit. I'll send Lafayette over. Sit tight. You're at the rendezvous spot, yes?"

"Yeah," Angelica felt a sinking feeling in her stomach as she realized the gravity of the situation. Laurens was gone, she didn't kill any of her targets, and Lafayette was risking his life to come extract her from the mission.

She could hear voices coming from the street, in the direction of George's house.  
"Tell Lafayette to wait a bit," she hissed into her phone. "There's people searching for me."

"Will do." There was a click and the phone went dead. Angelica shoved it into her pocket as she hurriedly changed into something more comfortable. Crouching near the entrance of the train car, she grabbed a shard of glass of the floor and stuck it so she could see around the corner. A group of people were gathered there. Angelica identified George, Seabury, and another person wearing a large brown hat whom she didn't recognize standing under a street light. 

"See if she's around here somewhere," George was saying. "She couldn't have gotten far."

Noisily, the guy with the brown hat detached himself from the group and drifted into the shadows. Angelica ignored him because he was searching in the wrong direction, and focused her attention on the two standing under the street lamp. 

"I knew that Angelina Siela was trouble from the moment I met her," George continued. 

Angelica watched Seabury to see if he would correct him with her real name, but the assassin merely looked bored. 

"Of course, sir." he sighed. "You notice everything."

George nodded, satisfied, but suddenly the street lights up and down the streets went out. 

"Seabury!"

"Yes, sir?" 

"Get Reynolds. We're done here."

Angelica made a mental note that the third guy was named Reynolds.  
Seabury sounded confused. "But sir-"

"Don't argue with me, Seabury, just do as I say!"

"Yes, sir."

Angelica couldn't see anything but she assumed by the retreating footsteps that they were leaving. She stayed in the shadows, still watching the spot where they were in case they came back again. 

"Hey Angelica," a voice came suddenly from behind her. 

Angelica's heart nearly stopped but she steeled herself and spun around, drawing a knife from her boot to aim it at the person's throat. 

It was John Laurens. 

"Woah," he yelped, taking a step back. "Chill."

Angelica gasped for breath, the realization of the moment catching up to her. "You-you-"

Laurens smiled sheepishly. "I'm alive. Don't worry."

Angelica didn't care if anyone heard her. She didn't care about anything except for Laurens. 

"You could've died!" Angelica cried. "I thought you were captured, dead, I don't know, maybe even being tortured as I was trying to find you. I told Hamilton, and he's probably worried sick, Lafayette's coming to get us, and-"

Laurens stopped her rant, laying a hand on her shoulder. "Calm down, Angelica. We're fine. I'm fine, you're fine."

"I failed the mission," Angelica said, her panic subsiding slightly. "What'll Boss do?"

Laurens shrugged. "He told you to get out of you couldn't complete it. They know you are here. They'll be ready."  
Angelica nodded slowly, letting her breathing calm. "Okay. I think Lafayette's coming over in a few, so I just need to tell Hamilton that you're alive, you little shit."

Laurens laughed. "Yeah, yeah. I get it. Give the phone to me when you're done?"

"Mmm." Angelica dialed Hamilton again and he picked up on the first ring. 

"Angelica? You okay?" 

"Yeah,"Angelica replied. "I found Laurens."

Hamilton's relief was audible even through the phone's speaker. "Oh, thank god. Could you put him on for a little?"

Angelica nodded. "Will do." She tossed the phone to Laurens, who barely caught it. She exited the train car to give him privacy. 

It was pitch black outside. No moon, no anything. She assumed that Laurens had shut the power down in the city grid before coming, and that made her a bit happy that he knew how to sneak around. Laurens wasn't exactly the most subtle, quite like Angelica herself.  
Suddenly, she heard a small rustle. She turned, but couldn't see who it was. It couldn't be Laurens, who was still inside the train car, and it couldn't be George because he left. Reynolds wasn't that quiet, as she had seen before. It could only be...

Angelica felt herself get pushed backward, something hard pressing between her shoulder blades as she was shoved against another train car.

"Seabury," she said. 

A hand covered her mouth, preventing any further speak. "If you talk any longer, I'm going to cut your tongue out," Seabury's voice slithered through the darkness. "And we wouldn't want your dear friend to be killed, would you?"

Angelica got the hint and stayed silent, her mind racing. 

"I don't like the prospects of this," Seabury continued. "And George isn't so forgiving. I know Washington trains his assassins and whatever the heck he's going on in his headquarters, but you are the one who needs this info. Not anyone else."

The hand was slowly moved from her mouth to let Angelica speak. 

"What?"

Seabury sounded exasperated. "Never mind, just take this!" 

He grabbed her arm and shoved a piece of folded paper into her hand. Then his presence withdrew and Angelica knew he had left for real this time. 

Clutching the piece of paper, she felt her way back to the train car, wondering, _What was that all that about?_


	3. informative

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Washington knows everything.

Commander Washington knew that they were in trouble the minute he heard that Angelica couldn’t win the fight against George Frederick’s personal assassin. Yes, the young woman was not as sophisticated as she should be, and not as subtle as some of the others, she did have a knack for following through with her missions.

Alexander Hamilton had received two call from her: one telling him that she was alone (Laurens was missing) and she failed the mission. Alexander had sent Lafayette to pick her up, which was slightly delayed at Angelica’s request. The second was her news that she found Laurens, and he and Alexander spent at least five minutes talking to each other.

Washington had made Angelica’s sister, Eliza, set to work on trying to figure out the assassin’s strengths and weaknesses. Angelica had sent in his name as Samuel Seabury, but there wasn’t really any info other than he had been one of those people who stood in the streets and preached to others prior to becoming an assassin. How Seabury managed to climb that far since then in the art of killing was beyond Washington’s knowledge.

Lafayette had just left headquarters, so Angelica and Laurens should both be safely back in base in at least twenty minutes.Sure enough, twenty minutes later, both Angelica and Laurens were walking through the secret entrance to the chatter of the other assassins and tech monitors. Alexander somehow managed to embraced Laurens, while bowing to Angelica at the same time. Eliza ran up to her sister and pulled her into a tight hug.

Washington could overhear her: “I’m so glad you’re back.”

“I haven’t even been gone for that long,“ Angelica replied, smiling.

"Still!”

Angelica gently shook her sister off and walked up to Washington. The Commander knew what was coming before she even opened her mouth. “You didn’t complete the mission, I know, but you didn’t fail us. We received plenty of info from your encounter with Seabury.”

Angelica nodded, digesting his words, before she said, “Seabury gave me this piece of paper. I really don’t know why he gave it to me, but…"She didn’t complete the sentence and merely handed it over.

Washington unfolded it, confused. There were three words and a phone number written on it: Just in case.

He looked back up at Angelica who seemed a bit anxious for his reaction.

"Do you know whose phone number this is?”

“No sir,” Angelica answered. “I assume that it is Seabury’s, but I’m not sure.”

Washington nodded and turned away. Why would Seabury give Angelica his number? Suddenly, a thought struck him and he looked over his shoulder at Angelica, who was still standing behind him.

“Do you think Seabury has a reason to contact you?” he asked.

Angelica hesitated before answering honestly, “He didn’t seem that interested in finding me even when George ordered him to. He’s young, so I don’t know how badly the kills are affecting his conscience.”

Washington nodded slowly as Angelica continued. “He is an excellent fighter, almost as good as George himself is. I don’t think I would have lasted long if I didn’t escape.”

Washington looked down at the paper again, thinking hard, noting that Angelica didn’t directly answer the question, before handing it back to Angelica.“I think you better give him a call. Make sure you’re away from headquarters, though, and use the phone standing at the edge of the block.”

Angelica glanced from the paper, to Washington, and then back. She looked shocked. "Sir-“

Washington smiled. "If Seabury’s going to help, we are going to need it.”

“But if he betrays us-?”

“We’ll just have to see,” Washington replied. He had his own reasons to try to trust Seabury, but Angelica didn’t need to know. And if Hamilton caught wind of what was going on… God, he didn’t want to think of that.Angelica took his words trustingly, and left the room.

“Boss, take a look at this,” Laurens called from the monitors.

Washington took one last look at Angelica before turning his attention to the 20-year-old hacker. “What is it?”

Laurens was staring at the screen, the glow reflecting in his eyes. Washington glanced at the words scrolling across the monitors, and sighed. “We got another death?”

“Yes, and it seems to be some kind of poisoning,” Eliza spoke up from across the room. “Not something Seabury has displayed quality work for.”

Washington hesitated. "Is there someone else working for George, that we know of?“

"No, Boss, no other assassins,” Eliza replied. "But, there is a guy named James Reynolds…?“

This was something he could work with. "Who is he?”

“Some guy who acts like the intimidation,” Eliza reported, “and also, most recently, torturing.”

“Torturing who?” Washington could think of a select few, but he needed to hear it with his own ears.

“You know about Lee,” Eliza said, “and there’s another person too.”

Washington could hear her voice crack slightly, and he knew Laurens heard it as well, by the way the hacker’s shoulders tensed.“Yes?”

“His wife. Maria Reynolds.” The strain in Eliza’s voice was audible now. Laurens half-rose from his seat to go comfort her, but Washington placed a hand on his shoulder. Eliza didn’t need to know they heard her moment of vulnerability.

“These people are still in captivity, yes?” Washington asked, continuing with the conversation as if nothing happened.

“Yes, sir, they are.” Eliza’s voice strengthened a bit. "Lee and Maria both are held in George’s mansion, in some kind of underground facility.“

"And they are the only ones there?"Eliza paused, her face falling slightly. "We are not sure, sir. There are rumors, but nothing is confirmed.”

Washington released a heavy breath. The tech crew were trying, he knew this, but it was no help without an inside source.

Which was why they needed Seabury.

“If we knew how to get in without being detected, could you infiltrate the mansion and get to the prisoners?” Washington asked.

Laurens shook his head. "To do that, we need to get rid of George himself. Otherwise, we’re screwed. Which we already are, because Seabury and Reynolds are protecting him.“

Washington couldn’t agree more, even though admitting it would cost his reputation.

"And we already know what happened to Lee when he tried,” Laurens added, which, in Washington’s – and clearly, Eliza’s – opinion, was unnecessary.

“Yes, Laurens, we do,” Washington sighed, putting a slight warning in his voice to not push the matter.Laurens glared at him for a moment before turning back to his computer, Washington catching words like shitty bastard, sticking his nose where he doesn’t belong, and a few suggestions for Lee to do should he come back.

Washington decided not to get involved, because it was no use keeping Laurens and Lee from each other’s throats, even though they actually performed well together. (most of their mission transcripts were mainly arguing).

“Going back to the poisoning…” he trailed off.

Eliza perked up. “Yeah, we got some info. Apparently, they weren’t poisoned with anything standard: the killer basically mixed a bunch of chemicals and dumped it into their drink.”

“Who’s the victim?”

At this, Eliza’s eyes filled with tears. “Jane Randolph.”

“Does Jefferson know about this?” he asked sharply.

Eliza shook her head. "I’ll call him.“

Thomas Jefferson was not employed by Washington, but he was one of the select few who knew of their actions. His friend, James Madison, however, was involved (as a techie), so he was determined to know everything and anything about the missions.

Eliza pulled her phone from her pocket as she left the room. Washington watched her retreat for a moment, before a slam of a door interrupted his thoughts.

Angelica had returned, her arms crossed, and her face an emotionless mask.

"Seabury wants to talk to you,” she said.

Washington stared at her in surprise. "Are you certain?“

Angelica nodded. "He told me all I needed to know. You need to talk to him. He’s on the line right now.”

Washington frowned. Why would Seabury give Angelica his phone number and then ask for the Commander?

There was only one way to find out.


	4. unexpected

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Samuel makes a choice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: blood and mentions of torture.

Samuel was staring at the smear on the wall in his room. Again. He saw a different shape every time he looked at it, even though he knew it was probably just his own mind. His glasses, specifically made to help with his color-blindness, didn’t help much.

The buzz of the static in his ear only reminded him of the absence of the person on the other end of the line. Angelica had gone to get her Commander, George Washington, presumably, and Samuel had no idea how long he would have to wait.

There was no reason for either her or Washington to trust him, but Samuel couldn’t speak his true intentions lest he get caught by George.

Suddenly, the phone crackled, and Samuel’s breath quickened. Did they actually trust him?

“Hello Seabury,” a deep voice rang through.

Samuel managed to compose himself before speaking. “Washington.”

“Yes.” Washington didn’t bother with elaborating. “What do you want?”

“Are we really going to go there first” Samuel asked, confused. "Aren’t you suspicions or something…?“

"Yes, we all are suspicious. You’re on speaker. Everyone can hear you. Now tell us: what do you want?”

_This was new._

“Well,” Samuel took a breath. “first of all, you need to trust me-”

“-Don’t push your luck,” Washington warned.

“Noted.”

There was a sigh, and Samuel could practically see Washington on the other end pinching his nose. "What. Do. You. Want.“

Samuel couldn’t see a reason to not tease them a bit, but he needed to cut to the chase before George figured out he was gone. "You know those people we captured? One of your people and this woman?”

“Yes?” This was not Washington speaking. It was younger, and more obviously, female.

No matter. He could still work with whatever person he was given.

“I can get them out.”

There was silence on the other end for so long, that Samuel wondered if they hung up on him.

And then the woman’s voice cut through the silence. “Why are you helping us?”

“Why not?”

There was a pause and then, “I mean- you’re on George’s side and-”

“Not necessarily.” Samuel cut in.

The woman stopped talking, and Washington took over. "You’re not?“

"I didn’t say that.”

_Check the door, Samuel, make sure George doesn’t know. Be careful what you say in this room, there are eyes and ears everywhere._

There was a deep breath and then it was Angelica who spoke. "Seabury, I swear…“

"Swear on what? I’m helping you, just accept my help. The woman is cracking, your agent is already half-dead. I’m trying to help, and you think I’m fucking with your brain? Well, I’m sorry, but I can’t deal right now. If anything, I only can get your agent out, now that you keep arguing with me. Reynolds isn’t going to kill his own wife.”

By the silence that followed, Samuel took that they were shocked. He mentally confirmed that they already knew about the woman being Reynolds’ wife. He had a strong suspicion that one of them had a connection to her somehow.

An unfamiliar voice spoke up then, Samuel identifying it as male. “Is there a way you can get the woman out, but not the other?”

Samuel felt his chest clench as a wave of hatred was washed towards the person who spoke. “No. He’s worse off. The wife will be fine. Reynolds has enough boundaries to not kill her.”

Washington’s voice cut through the rise of chatter that surfaced. "We can do that. Thank you, Seabury.“

Samuel hung up in response, the last words coming through being of someone saying, "Thanks for nothing.”

Samuel leaned back against the wall, closing his eyes in exasperation. Washington, at least, had some degree of faith – probably because it was the only goddamn way to get his agent back.

Running his hand along the gash in his leg (courtesy of Angelica), he wondered how he could pull this off. Lee, as much as he knew, was in no state to run nor hide properly, and since he already said he wasn’t bringing Reynolds’ wife, Maria, he had no other help. He knew the underground facility by heart, of course, but there were guards patrolling it consistently, despite the fact they only had two captives, one of whom was physically and mentally unstable, the other becoming mentally unstable.

Hearing George calling for him, Samuel slipped out of his room and closed the door with a click.

“Sammy!” George exclaimed walking towards the young assassin, Reynolds behind him. "James and I were just talking about how needed it is to try to track down Angelina Siela again!“

Samuel didn’t correct George’s misnaming, recognizing that the less info George knew, the better. "I’m already on it, sir. She has a rendezvous spot near that street lamp we were at a few hours ago.”

George’s face split into a large grin. Samuel briefly reflected on if his words were badly judged, before brushing off the matter. He needed Reynolds and George out of the house, so he could retrieve Lee.

“Excellent, excellent!” George laughed. “I knew I could count on you, right Reynolds? Remember I said that?”

Reynolds sent Samuel a death glare before saying dully, “Yeah, whatever.”

George didn’t seem deterred. "Reynolds, let’s get on with it. Sammy, you know what to do.“

Samuel nodded. Every time George and Reynolds went to scout out a place, Samuel stayed behind. And vice versa.

It was luck that George decided this outcome, because now he was allotted at least twenty minutes to get Lee and get out. Not a lot of time, but it might be worth it.

As soon as the door closed behind the two, Samuel slipped into the underground facility. His status as George’s right-hand-man allowed him access into even the cells where the prisoners were kept. As he ventured further underground, the air around him became frigid; it was so cold, that he could see his breath fogging into the air. He was surprised neither of the captives had died of the cold yet.

The woman, Maria stared at him through the thick glass plate that separated her from Samuel. Her eyes showed recognition, but no hostility.

"You’ve come to take him away,” Maria spoke, her voice echoing strangely in the empty corridor.

Samuel nodded briefly before turning to face Lee. The young man was huddled against the far wall, his eyes blank, blood pooling around him.

“He’s broken,” Maria continued. "He tried to escape and they punished him.“

Samuel winced, despite himself. That could never be good.

_Stop stalling, Samuel, get him and get out!_

Maria seemed clear-minded, despite the torture she’d been put through. She had strong resolve, Samuel remembered, though it wouldn’t last long. She was cracking, and these past few nights had been Lee’s turn to comfort her as she screamed into the night.

Speaking of Lee…

Samuel ripped off his left glove, the cold air stabbing his bare hand, and placed it on the monitor. It beeped once and the glass plate slid to the side. Lee looked up, his eyes a bit more focused, squinting.

"Sam.”

Samuel didn’t waste time. He had no idea how long he had been here, and he needed to contact Washington again to pick him up.

He helped Lee to his feet, struggling slightly under dark-haired man’s weight. As he managed to ease Lee out of the cell, he saw Maria, watching them.

He felt a pang of guilt. There was no point leaving her here, so Samuel made a decision. Gently, he freed one of his hands and opened the glass panel. Maria stepped out, her expression grateful, but Samuel motioned for her to stay quiet, and take his place. As soon as Maria was acting as Lee’s support, Samuel dialed Washington again.

The Commander picked up immediately, and Samuel quickly explained the situation.

“I need you guys to be here, now,” he said forcefully.

“Where do you want us?” Washington asked.

“Behind the mansion, there’s a metal door hidden under some plants. You need to clear them away and open the door. It’s unlocked. I’m coming with Maria and Lee right now.”

He heard a sharp intake of breath before he hung up. He needed to get Maria and Lee out, before George and Reynolds came back.

Moving underneath Lee’s other arm, Samuel and Maria managed to hobble to the exit point, right when it opened.

Angelica’s face appeared in the opening, and her eyes widened. "Holy shit,“ she whispered.

She turned over her shoulder and called, "Lafayette! Hurry up and get over here!”

Another person appeared beside her, and when he spoke, his voice had a distinct French accent.

“ _Merde_ ,” Lafayette choked. “that is a lot of blood.”

Angelica groaned at his comment, and looked at Samuel somewhat apologetically. "He has a tendency to say the obvious.“

She reached down and helped Maria up, and working together with both Samuel and Lafayette, managed to hoist Lee to the surface.

"You gotta come in and make as much damage as you can: knock out the guards, shatter glass, whatever, and just know that this door won’t be usable again.”

Angelica nodded. “Got it.”

She dropped into the space next to Samuel. “How are you going to get out of it?”

Samuel shrugged. "The guards aren’t smart. Plus, if you hit them hard enough, they might not remember.“

Angelica’s face morphed into a gleeful expression. "I like the way you think, Seabury.”

Samuel gave a half-smile in response, eyes darting sideways to scan for unnecessary details he might have missed.

_You’re good, Samuel._

Angelica disappeared into the darkness, followed by silence and then an explosion. Samuel could hear the guards shouting, but they died down after a few moments. He deemed it safe enough to follow her then. He passed her on her way back; she laughed and clapped his shoulder as they went their separate ways. "See you on the other side,“ she told him, before blasting a hole in the now-closed-secret door, and escaping into the outside world.

Samuel picked up a piece of glass and slashed his clothes and skin with it, to make it seem like he’d been in a battle, smeared the blood on himself, and staggered back into the entrance hall, where George and Reynolds had just returned.

George stared at him in horror. "Sammy, what happened?”


	5. transfusions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angelica and Lafayette go back to headquarters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mentions of torture

Angelica’s life had never been more confusing. They had an enemy helping them, two badly injured people rescued from George’s mansion, and they just got away with it. She reminded herself to still be wary of Seabury, but it was hard not to when he said he would only help get one person out and ended up freeing both.

Lafayette was driving, his expression unreadable as he navigated the side streets back to headquarters. The two rescued captives were huddled in the backseat, Maria looking out the window at the bleak landscape and Lee barely conscious. Angelica didn’t know how long he would last without medical attention. Lafayette, seemingly reading her thoughts, depressed the accelerator, and the car shot forward.

Within a couple of minutes, they had arrived at headquarters, Angelica nearly falling out of the car in her haste. Eliza had gotten both Thomas and James back from break (well, only James was part of the organization, but Thomas had the rights), and was in the middle of comforting the latter outside – most likely for the death of his sister – when Angelica practically ran up to them.

Eliza, being the knowing sister she was, didn’t ask any questions and followed Angelica back to the car. Thomas went back inside, with a cursory glance at the agents, before disappearing into headquarters.

She gasped when she saw Lee’s state. "Reynolds did this?“

Angelica nodded grimly, focused on lifting Lee out without injuring him further. "Yeah, he did. Lucky Maria was a bit less injured.”

Eliza looked at her in surprise. "Seabury rescued her too? But I thought-“

"That he would leave me behind? Then I guess you don’t know Samuel that well,” Maria said from her place in the backseat.

After Angelica and Lafayette had gotten Lee into the doors of headquarters, Eliza threw herself into Maria’s arms. “Maria, I’m so glad to see you again!”

Maria returned the embrace, smiling slightly. "The feeling is mutual.“

"Did your husband hurt you at all? Are you okay?” Eliza sounded ready to jump at her for any sign of distress.

Maria shook her head, smile gone. “I’m fine. Your agent, what’s his name? Charles?”

“Yeah?”

“He was caught a few weeks ago, and they dragged him in, after dousing him with that horrid sleep toxin. They started torturing him the next day for information on who he was, and why he came. He tried to escape once, but they just punished him even more after they caught him. I used to stay up with him through the night, but it was harder after my headaches started getting stronger-”

“What headaches?” Eliza interrupted.

Maria watched her, waiting for her to calm down before continuing. "They probed my brain. The side-effects were headaches, but it was nothing compared to what they did to Charles. Because I was James’ wife, I could not be harmed by anyone but my own husband.“

Eliza’s eyes were sparkling with tears. "I can’t believe you two had to go through that. I’m so sorry, Maria.”

Maria gave her a half-smile. “My headaches will go away soon, I think. Charles, on the other hand…”

She looked pointedly to the headquarter entrance. Eliza blushed and nodded fiercely before pushing the door open and going inside, Maria behind her. The main room was abuzz with activity. Eliza spotted Washington in the far corner; when he spotted her, he gave her a small nod and indicated in the direction of the medical wing. Angelica and Lafayette were exiting the room right when Eliza and Maria arrived.

“Herc doesn’t want anyone in there just yet. He’s gotta sew up the wounds and then Lee needs a blood transfusion.”

“A blood transfusion?” Eliza repeated. "But how are we going to get that?“

"We could always kill someone and take their blood,” Lafayette said with a smirk.

Maria groaned, lightly slapping his arm. "Do me a favor and not do that?“

The Frenchman pouted, but nodded. "We don’t have any ties to a hospital or anything. And we can’t rob a blood bank.”

Eliza frowned. "Maybe I could put in an order under someone else’s name and see what happens.“

Angelica smiled admiringly at her younger sister. "Sounds good, Eliza. Are you sure you can pull it off?”

Eliza nodded, a bit hesitantly. "I think so. Charles is more capable at this stuff, but I don’t think he’s in the condition right now to monitor his own blood transfusion.“

Maria laughed at that, and Eliza turned a shade of pink. "Eliza always comes up with the best jokes,” she said, slinging her arm around the other woman.

Angelica hid a smile, noticing Eliza’s shock and elation at being so close to her crush without warning. She didn’t know when her sister would tell Maria her true feelings, but it was amusing to see Eliza react like this.

Eliza managed to compose herself enough to pull herself out of Maria’s hold. "I should probably report in. Boss needs to know.“

Angelica nodded seriously. "That’s probably a good idea. Check to see if it’s okay putting a fake order to a blood bank before you do it.”

Eliza rolled her eyes. "Do me a favor, Angie, and never make a joke again.“

The assassin smirked. "You know you love me.”

Eliza shook her head and left the hallway, still smiling. Maria looked from Angelica to Lafayette, who was still standing awkwardly to the side. "Is Thomas alright?“ she asked.

The two agents blinked. "I’m sorry?” Angelica asked. "What do you mean?“

"His sister is dead, yes? I heard about it during my ‘stay’ in George’s facility,” Maria explained. "Thomas must distraught after such short notice.“

Lafayette studied her for a moment before nodding in agreement. "He’s grieving, but trying not to show it. His reputation as a, how you say, sassy bitch needs to be upheld.”

Maria snorted. "He is very sassy, if I do say so myself. As long as he has James, he will be fine, I hope.“

The door to the main room opened, and Thomas appeared in the doorway. He had tear tracks down his face, but he had managed to compose himself.

"What’s going on?” he asked, trying to sound cheerful. "I heard the words, sassy, and, bitch, strung together.“

Angelica forced a smile onto her face. "We were just saying how much of a sassy bitch you are.” she said sweetly.

Thomas laughed, his positive expression looking a bit more genuine. "That, I am.“

A wave of relief swept through the three in the hallway. "I’m glad,” Maria said simply, before walking past him into the control room.

Thomas backed out, letting the door close and Lafayette and Angelica were left waiting for Hercules to come out of the med room.

Their friend emerged after a couple of minutes, looking tired, but confident. "He’s going to live, if he can get blood back. He’s lost so much, and we don’t have any-“

"Eliza’s putting in a fake order to the blood bank,” Angelica interrupted. "So we’re good.“

Hercules looked relieved. "Okay, because if we have to go through what we did last year…I was going to quit.”

Lafayette clapped him on the shoulder. " _Mon ami_ , you would never quit on us.“

"That is true,” Hercules replied thoughtfully. “You guys are always getting injured. It’s insane. That being said, I forgot to ask: how did you guys get Charles and Maria out of that place? I thought it was impenetrable.”

“Seabury did it for us,” Angelica answered, realizing that Hercules hadn’t been in the room when Washington patched the call in. "He was originally going to just get Lee, but ended up grabbing Maria too. I have no idea why.“

Hercules shrugged. "Change of heart, change of mind.”

“Wouldn’t say that for sure,” Lafayette warned. "Seabury is still part of the enemy, even though he did rescue our friends.“

"Lee isn’t so much of a friend to most people here,” Angelica put in. "But yeah, we look after our own. And we owe Seabury.“

Lafayette gave her a wary look, but agreed nothingless. "We do owe him, I guess. Laurens won’t be happy.”

“He just can’t trust those other that the people in this organization. Except Lee,” Hercules added. “Those two have a rival streak, even if they work well together.”

Angelica cracked a smile. "'Rival streak’ is stretching it.“

The door swung open again, but this time, Washington appeared in the doorway.

"You might want to see this,” he said.


	6. secrets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Samuel reflects on his actions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings for implied content and panic attacks.

Samuel stared at George for a second, running his options through his head as quickly as he could. Trying to hide his panic, he said as nonchalantly as he could, “Assassins happened.”

“And you didn’t stop them?” George asked unbelievingly. "Really now?“

Samuel nodded, forcing a look of pain onto his face, which wasn’t hard, considering the injuries he’d just inflicted on himself. "That girl, Angelina,” _God, I hate saying her name like that._ “she came with at least three others,” _That’s a lie._ “and they proceeded to blow up the Underground and take both Lee and your wife, Reynolds.” _Lie, lie, lie, lie, LIE._

George frowned. "Hmph. Angelina is seriously getting on my nerves.“ He cast an appraising glance at Samuel, taking in his bloodied and ripped clothes. "Go clean up. I’ll need you back in a few hours.”

Samuel nodded, risking a glance at Reynolds, who was looking at him suspiciously. But he didn’t have the chance to dwell on that, because George had taken him by the shoulders and was gently pushing him to his room. “Go on, Sammy.”

Samuel huffed and brushed George’s hand off – _he never passes up an opportunity to touch me_ –and left the main hallway.

The mirror in his room was cracked, a single jagged line slashed through the center of it. Samuel had no idea how it happened – _he remembered, but he didn’t want to, did he?_ – but the damage to it was done. His image reflected back at him, distorted and creepy, and Samuel was reminded again of the stain on the wall. No amount of forgetting could erase that.

Ripping his glasses off, Samuel stared at himself in the mirror, letting the colors wash into each other, forming into completely different ones. His color blindness wasn’t anything he could help, but George had insisted. _George had insisted._

George had insisted a lot of things, like last night…Samuel suddenly felt the need to vomit and bent double over the toilet. The bile rushing through his throat burned, and, Samuel thought, didn’t stray far from his actual feelings.

Running a hand through his hair, Samuel straightened, pulling some bandages off the counter and wrapping them around his wounds, yanking off the ruined clothing and pulling on new ones. _Why had he done this?_

He had intended to only rescue Charles, yes, but he felt empathy towards Maria, for her husband’s abuse. Maybe he was too soft-hearted, like Reynolds had claimed only yesterday.

But seeing the gratitude in her eyes had been worth the trouble, and surely Angelica’s assassin crew would be happy to have both their agent and friend back.

_Happiness. Yeah, right._

Maybe Samuel had been cursed with this life, killing people that merely annoyed George, in exchange for money and other things he’d rather not think about. Maybe if he had been a bit more smart seven years ago…

Someone, presumably George, rapped at Samuel’s door. The young assassin fumbled for the doorknob and pulled it open, at the same time, shoving his glasses back onto his face.

But it wasn’t his boss who stood there, glaring at Samuel as though he wanted to rip his throat out that instant, but Reynolds.

Samuel immediately knew why Reynolds looked suspicious. _He knows._

Reynolds jabbed a finger at Samuel’s chest, not daring to make contact, but threatening nevertheless. "I know what you did,“ he growled.

Samuel managed to keep his composure, despite his rapidly increasing heart rate. "Reynolds.”

The older man ignored the barely contained warning and continued. "You helped them escape.“

"I did.” Samuel didn’t try to hide it; why should he when it was going to come out anyway?

Reynolds inhaled sharply. "And if George finds out…“

"He won’t,” Samuel said, watching Reynolds for a sign of his explosive temper.

“I could tell him,” Reynolds added, slyly.

Samuel shrugged. "Would he believe you?“

"Listen.” Reynolds was not here to play games. He shoved his face so close to the younger man that the latter could smell his breath. "I know what George does, and I-“

"Took an example from him to do it to your own wife?”

Reynolds hissed, and withdrew. "You’ll regret those words, Seabury, I swear to you-“

"Sammy!” George’s voice echoes down the hallway. “You coming?”

“Yeah,” Samuel called back, and with a quick glance at a seething Reynolds, went to find his boss.

George was in his office, staring out the window. When he heard Samuel approach, he turned away, and faced the young assassin. "We scouted the rendezvous place. Looks like there were security cameras in there, but we disabled them. Other than that, they had no other indication they were there except for this.“

He pulled out a red baseball cap. "It could belong to one of the agents,” he said. "Reynolds was thinking it could have been Angelina’s backup.“

Samuel nodded, pretending to think. "I could analyze it for any imprints,” he suggested.

George beamed. "Perfect!“

He handed the cap to Samuel, who took it gingerly. The assassin already knew whose cap it was: John Laurens’, but he wasn’t about to tell George that.

"Should I go now?” he asked, thoroughly done with everything to do with George.

George studied him for a moment, and Samuel recognized the light in his eyes. It set off a wave of images that Samuel didn’t want to deal with right now.

_Oh no…_

“I think so,” the older man said after a moment. "Send Reynolds in. I need to talk to him.“

Samuel couldn’t describe the relief he felt while leaving George’s office. If the rest of the night – or, seeing it was two a.m: morning – was going to be like last night, then Samuel would have left right then and there. He didn’t need any more emotional stress. _Especially not now. Please not now._

Samuel passed Reynolds in the hallway back to his room, the latter glaring at him when he passed along George’s message but grudgingly nodded and left. Samuel entered his room again and after closing and locking the door, fell against it and slid to the floor in exhaustion.

He dropped Laurens’ baseball cap onto the ground and pulled his sunglasses off, letting the light, once again, swirl into images he didn’t need reminding of. The stain on the wall and the crack in the mirror weren’t going away, he knew, and neither were his memories.

_Samuel, you gotta pull your act together._

Taking a deep breath, Samuel braced himself against the door and pulled himself back up, clutching his glasses so hard, his knuckles were turning white. _Take deep breaths._

He staggered to his bed, dropping onto it, and nearly fell over. Breathe.Memories were flooding his brain, overwhelming him so he could barely see. _I don’t want to remember these._

Samuel forced his mind back under his control, bile churning in his stomach, pushing up into his throat. _It isn’t real, it isn’t real, you’re okay, you gotta BREATHE._

He drew a choked breath, gripping the edge of his bed, struggling to forget. _Erase the memories, you’re fine._

He wasn’t fine, and he knew it. _Shit_. He should have known these memories would resurface. He hadn’t been alone in a room with George like that since-

_You don’t want to remember that._

He wanted to go back down to the Underground, to see Charles and Maria again, for someone to actually care about him. But he couldn’t. Because he freed them.Some part of him wanted them back, but he quashed those thoughts, disgusted with himself. He was selfish, to want their company, in a place that held as many good memories for them as it did him. Perhaps this was some kind of karma for killing the people he did, no matter if they were done under orders.

_Breathe, Samuel. Breathe._

Samuel stared at the smear on the wall. It was ironic: it was one of the causes for the memories, but it also helped calm him down. He felt his heart rate slow, and he slowly untensed. He took control of his body enough to drop the sunglasses next to his bed and shakily cross the room to pick up Laurens’ baseball hat.

Without his glasses, the hat appeared a gross yellow, not unlike the color of the carpet, which reminded him, for some random reason, of the horrendous soup that George liked to eat. Dropping the hat in revulsion, he leaned back onto his elbows, staring at the ceiling, which was thankfully free of marks. His mind was only clear enough for one thought:

_I need to get out of here._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That was very emotional. I'm sorry, Samuel.


	7. security

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angelica and the others find more information; Eliza send the transfusion request

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no idea how a blood transfusion works.

"What am I looking at?" Angelica asked in confusion.

The photo on the screen was not of anything she'd seen before.  It was of a room, but so full of machinery and equipment that she could barely make out the dimensions.  She could vaguely make out a window on the left side, but the opening was blocked with boxes.

"This was taken by Madison a few minutes ago.  He managed to hack the security cameras in George's mansion, and all of them but one are functional.  This, I think, is a storage room?"

"Looks like it," Angelica replied.

Lafayette leaned towards the monitor.  "What else is in his mansion?  Does he have that many rooms that he just uses one to  _store_ things?"

Washington flipped through the security feeds, and Angelica got a glimpse of a kitchen, the ballroom, many bedrooms, and-

"Wait.  Go back."  she ordered.

Washington surprisingly didn't reprimand her for her tone, and instead shot back to the room that had caught Angelica's attention.

It was the room she had fought Seabury in, she was sure of it.  But everything seemed to be back to normal: the chair was replaced as well at the picture frame.  The walls were free of knives and other objects, making it seem like nothing had happened.  

"Is there security recordings for this room?" she asked.   _Maybe George knows my real name now. That would be a problem._

Madison, who was at the keyboard, nodded.  "I can pull them up for you," he said.

A few seconds later, Angelica was rewatching what happened hours ago.  She and her coworkers (and boss) watched as her video self entered the room, Seabury leading the way.  But then the feed flickered and it immediately shot to when the fight started.

_Wait a minute..._

"How did that happen?" she asked herself, loud enough for the others to hear.

"What happened?" Lafayette repeated.

Angelica turned to face him, though she made eye contact with Washington.  "He knew who I was.  He  _said my name_.  But for some reason, the recording of that is missing."

Madison typed something on the computer, and pulled up the time frames.  "There's nothing here.  Someone must've messed with the code.  Maybe Seabury did it?"

Angelica studied the screen for a moment, and then said, "Does he have a room here?"

Madison shrugged.  "I think that's the feed missing.  He messed with the camera so no one can see what he does in there."

"But wouldn't George know?" Lafayette wondered aloud.

"He probably doesn't check the security feeds," Angelica replied.  "Because he's  _so busy_  with killing people and whatnot."

"And whatever other bullshit he uses to cover himself up," Lafayette spat. 

Madison flipped through the security channels again, but when nothing else of interest came up, Washington told him to store those feeds so they could 'use them for later reference.'  

Angelica wandered away from the Commander, searching for her sister.  She found Eliza at her computer, typing furiously.  

"You okay there, 'Liza?"

Eliza looked up, her eyes slightly annoyed but clearing once she saw who it was.  "Yeah.  I'm trying to get the blood bank to transfer the blood over but they don't like that I'm giving them an address that they are suspicious of.  I'm planning on getting Lafayette to receive the stuff, but it's really hard trying to get them to do what I need."

Angelica leaned over her younger sister's shoulder, reading the messages between her and the blood bank.  "Wow, they really don't want to send it to you."

"Yeah, because I can't tell them why I need it!" Eliza groaned, leaning back in her seat.  

"You could say that my coworker lost a lot of blood and we need a transfusion?"

"That's the problem," Eliza explained.  "I did say that,  _and_  I made up why I needed it, but they still won't listen!"

Angelica huffed.  If she had a choice, she would march to a hospital and demand blood, but she couldn't risk giving away who she was.  "Tell them the truth on why you need it," she said after a moment. "Blood loss from torturing should get them to shut up."

"But it could arouse extra attention," Eliza tried.

Angelica shrugged, and Eliza sighed.  "You're actually serious.  Fine."

It only took a few seconds for the reply to come in. Angelina didn't even need to look to know that they had agreed.

"It actually worked," Eliza exclaimed, stunned.  "Angie, you're amazing!"

"I know," Angelica gave the smuggest smile she could muster while flipping her hair dramatically.  "I'm awesome, and I'm always right."

"That may be stretching it," Laurens called from across the room, earning a glare from the assassin.

Lafayette, sensing dramatism as always, broke away from his conversation with Washington to sneak a peek at Eliza's computer.  "Ooh, blood transfusion stuff! I'll have to pick this up,  _oui_?"

Eliza nodded, already pulling up dozens of windows.  "I sent you the coordinates.  Just meet them outside of the address.  They'll be there in five."

Lafayette winked at her.  "I bet I can get there in three."

And he was gone.

Eliza rolled her eyes. "He's like a ball of energy.  You can't calm him down -- ever."

Angelica had to agree with her sister on this: Lafayette was very well known for his energetic manner, and it drove everyone crazy to no end trying to figure out how he managed to run like that without any coffee.

Just then, her phone rang.  The caller ID told her it was her youngest sister, Peggy.  The now-18-year-old (Washington still wouldn't let her join) was not part of the organization, so she made up for it with her constant phone calls to Angelica and Eliza, despite the fact that Angelica usually was out on missions.

"Heey, Angie!" Peggy's voice squealed through the phone speaker.  "How's it goin'? I heard everything about your mission and those  _other_  things from John.  It must be crazy over there!"

"Yeah," Angelica exhaled, noticing Eliza's look of confusion, gestured to her phone, mouthing  _Peggy_.  Her sister nodded in understanding.

"So," Peggy continued in a more serious note, "how's the whole blood transfusion going on?"

"Pretty well, actually," Angelica replied. "Laf's gone to pick it up."

"Is Charles okay?" Peggy asked, her concern evident even through the phone line. "George must've got him real bad."

"He did. He lost a lot of blood.  Herc's unsure about the transfusion, but it's our best shot."

The entrance door swung open again and Laf burst into the room, carrying a large box (cooler?).

"Herc, where do you want this?" he called in the direction of the hallway.  

Hercules poked his head around the corner and blanched at the large cooler of blood. "Uh, well... I guess we can give it to Charles now."

Lafayette shot the tailor-turned-doctor a grin and followed him back to the medical wing.  Angelica and Eliza watched in silence as the door slammed shut.

"Hello?" Peggy's voice came through, crackling slightly with the volume.  "What just happened? I heard Laf's voice.  That was it."

Eliza grabbed the phone from her older sister's hand.  "Lafayette just brought in, like, a whole box full of blood," she laughed.

"Shit," Peggy giggled.  "Herc must've been really disturbed and surprised."

"Yeah, he looked horrified when he saw how happy Laf was."

"Only he would be excited to be carrying a ton of blood, yet he looks like he's going to vomit when he actually sees it."

Eliza laughed.  "That's true."

Angelica hid a smile as she watched her sisters talk animatedly, but she spotted Hercules waving to her from the open door to the infirmary hallway.  She edged away from them and towards the medical wing. 

"What's up?" she asked. "Is the transfusion going okay?"

"That's the thing," Hercules replied.  "Laf's freaking out about the blood so I sent him to the bathroom to calm down.  But I can't do this alone, and you're probably the only person who would be cool about this.  The Commander's busy and I don't think Eliza nor Madison will be willing to help."

Angelica hesitated. "I guess I could. Because the only other person skilled in this stuff is Laurens and I don't think-"

"What are you saying about me?" Laurens interrupted, shoving himself next to Angelica in the doorway.  "What are you doing?"

"We...were suggesting that you could help Herc with the blood transfusion," Angelica told him slyly.

Laurens blinked.  "No way, Angie! I'm not helping Lee!"

Angelica shrugged.  "Would you rather I do it?"

Laurens' eyes narrowed, studying her suspiciously.  "Why? What are you planning?"

His gaze slowly crept from Angelica's deadpan expression to Hercules' sneaky one.  "I don't trust you guys."

Angelica shrugged, something short of a plan forming in her head, just to piss Laurens off.  She was allowed to have some fun, right? And to get him back for leaving her during the mission.  "Well, you hate Lee, so I should do the transfusion. Isn't that what you wanted?"

Laurens blinked.  He seemed to understand that he  _did_  hate Lee, therefore Angelica  _should_  do it, but her expression, as well as Hercules', was throwing him off.  Was there something he missed?

Hercules could see that Angelica intended to confuse Laurens, which, so far, was working, but he didn't understand why.  Maybe it was payback, but maybe it was something else...

"You're trying to throw me off," Laurens decided.  "Whatever. I'm not falling for it, but that was a nice try, Angie."

Angelica rolled her eyes.  "Just continuing what you started!" she called after his retreating form. 

If Laurens heard her, he didn't show it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Explanation for the transfusion: in this verse, they can send actual blood to a certain address, which is why Eliza had trouble putting in the request because they couldn't deliver right to their door (secrecy issues).


	8. connections

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> John is seriously confused.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's Lams and Leerens in here for y'all who ship 'em.

“-thinks she can just convince me,” John muttered under his breath as he made his way back to the monitors.

He passed Madison and Washington, both of whom were conversing about the newly found security feeds they found. John believed Seabury was the one who allowed them to access it, but he was still wary of the enemy assassin. He didn’t know that much about the younger man so that fact alone made him uncomfortable. And the fact that the assassin was under George’s – the guy they were sent to kill – employment made it even worse.

But Angelica seemed to find a legit reason in that Seabury had rescued the captives against his boss’ knowledge. John had to agree, that yes, Seabury deserved that credit, but it was hard to get over the whole ‘enemy assassin’ thing. Maybe if Seabury could kill George for them, it would be so much easier.

And the captives hadn’t come back in the best condition, John tried to reason with himself. Maria seemed much more distant and Lee-  
God. He didn’t want to even start to think about him.

The injuries were worse than they looked; it was so bad that Lee needed a blood transfusion, but John, no matter how Angelica tried to convince him, would not help. He wouldn’t.

Or so he tried to think, even as he looked back over his shoulder at the door leading to the infirmary.

His connection to Alexander was obvious. The two spent so much down time with each other that everyone was confused as to why they haven’t been officially declared together yet. And sure, John had to admit, they may have kissed some times when they were alone and they may have slept together but it wasn’t anything _too_ much.

_Not too much._

His connection to Lee was just as obvious, except it was completely different to his and Alexander’s relationship. Lee had bad-mouthed Washington once and when Alexander had gotten mad enough at him to try to fight him, John volunteered to fight in his place. And then everything involving Lee just went downhill.

His hatred for the other man was so intense that they couldn’t be in the same room without arguing, much like Thomas and Alexander. They had gotten paired together once for a mission, which had actually gone well, but Lee almost had gotten caught because their verbal taunts had escalated too far.

Washington never assigned them to the same mission again.

But despite their history, Angelica, for some reason thought that John cared about Lee.

_As if!_

John arrived back at his seat, the computer screen flashing red. He leaned over his chair to type in a few commands, and while the glow slowly faded into blue, he plopped down in his chair, which squeaked in protest as he leaned back.  
But then he found himself glancing again at the closed door to the medical wing. It was just guilt, that’s all it was, he thought furiously. He forced himself to stare at his screen, pulling up the files Washington had assigned him three days ago.

These documents were gruesome descriptions of the remnants of all the victims of Seabury’s attacks. Because John was less likely to panic or feel sick at the details of the bloody remains, he was usually the one to read up on these types of documents.

Seabury was known for his gory kills, which was another reason why Washington ordered for them to take him out before George. He didn’t want any more messy deaths on his hands than he needed. Angelica had been the most suited for the job with Lee out of commission at the time (being captured) and the other agents reluctant to venture into a place where one of their own had disappeared. But her failure, as well as Lee’s condition when he was rescued, sent a large message to the organization as a whole: _Don’t mess with us._

John wasn’t particularly worried for himself, because unlike most of the tech people here, he learned self-defense on his own time, as did Eliza. People like Madison, however, were completely different cases.

But John found himself wondering, as he flipped through the various accounts of the assassinations – or in these cases, murders – if anyone would be able to defend themselves against George and whatever stuff he made in that hellhole mansion of his. There were documents on the different illegal weapons and other materials and chemicals that George supposedly was in possession of, and that just made the reason to kill him all the more stronger. Lee was trained just as well as Angelica and the other assassins, but as Angelica made it out of the mansion after her cover was blown, Lee didn’t.

John could only guess that George had guards or some people skilled enough to fight. Alexander, who went scouting a few days before, had come back with reports of men dressed in the same bright red coats.

“If they were spies or part of some sneaky cult, then they wouldn’t want to be spotted,” Alexander had complained. "Bright red isn’t exactly the best color to hide in!“

Angelica had laughed and responded with, "I bet you could blend in with it after Laurens is through with you. It would match your skin tone perfectly.”

Alexander had then glared at her while the rest of the agents roared with laughter. John had smirked, saying, “You know it’s true, Alex.”

The laughter increased in volume and while John was bathing in his pride of roasting his not-boyfriend, he caught Lee’s eye accidentally. For once, the other man didn’t seem to want to pick a fight and returned the smirk good-naturedly. And then John felt this strange feeling wash over him; it wasn’t happy nor sad, but very unusual. And it kept him distracted the rest of the day, even when Eliza started screaming instructions into her headset and pounding the keys on her keyboard (she was the tech person assigned to the mission a few hours after that Redcoat discussion), even when Eliza grabbed him by the shoulders and asked him _ohgodwhatdoidoineedyourhelpjohn_ , even when he knew that whoever was in the field at the time was in danger. But John couldn’t concentrate, couldn’t focus, and by the time Eliza gave up on him and found Alexander instead, the connection line went dead.

Eliza was practically smashing her keyboard in a panic, trying to get the line back up. Alexander had rushed to get Washington.

In the end, they lost the connection completely, and when John asked Eliza who had been in the field, she looked at him in shock and then said, “It was Charles Lee, John. I thought you knew that.”

John didn’t know what to say. Eliza looked like she was about to start screaming or crying at him when Angelica arrived and led her sister away.

And now, three days later, Samuel Seabury rescued Charles Lee and Maria Reynolds from George Frederick, and John was thoroughly relieved and angry at the same time. Relieved because, yes, it was Lee, but having a death he would be partially responsible for on his hands would never slide. But the anger was new. And John understood it was directed at Seabury, but he didn’t understand why.

He felt a slight pressure on his shoulders, and turned. Thomas was hovering above him, watching his computer screen, but he had a disturbing feeling that he was watching him as well.

“It’s not your fault,” Thomas said, without breaking his gaze from the monitor, the glow from the screen reflected in his brown eyes.

John glanced at him and then looked away. "I didn’t say it was.“

"You feel guilty.”

“Yeah.”

“I feel the same way with my sister. Her friends called me minutes before her death, asking me to help her with something. They couldn’t describe what was going on very well and by the time I managed to call 911 – that was something they should have already done – she was gone. Just like that.”

John sat up straight and turned to face Thomas. "That wasn’t your fault! They should have called 911 first!“

Truth to be told, Thomas’ aura was freaking him out a little because he had never seen the other man so honest and open before (and why would he approach John if he hated Alexander?).

Thomas just sighed and shook his head. "I know that, but because I was a part of it, and she was close to me, it feels like my fault. I can’t convince myself otherwise,” he added, “so don’t try it.”

“Are you trying to tell me something? I feel like I’m missing a piece here.”

Thomas’ gaze traveled up to meet the tech monitor’s eyes. "You don’t know?“ he asked disbelievingly. "Even Angelica knows.”

“I got that,” John replied grumpily.

Thomas stared at him. “And…?”

“What do you want coming here to spill your life story? Look, I’m sorry about your sister, but I don’t know what you want from me.”

Thomas raised his hands in surrender. "Calm down. I’m just gonna say, if you honestly wanna be with Alexander, then-“

"I do!” John protested, even as he felt a sinking feeling in his stomach.

Thomas glared at him – he hated being interrupted – but continued talking as if he couldn’t hear John. “-then go ahead, but we all know how you really feel.” He turned on his heel and flounced away.

 _How I really feel-?_ John frowned as he tried to process Thomas’ words. _Why would I want to be with anyone else if I-_

And then it hit him. They thought he had a thing for _Charles Lee_.

 

_Shit._


	9. stress

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh look, Burr's here now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning for PTSD and panic attacks.

Angelica had forgotten how nerve-racking blood transfusions were. The last time was probably worse, because Peggy was the one who had been caught in the crossfire and needed at least a pint of blood. How she survived was anyone’s guess.

Hercules had done a good job of patching Charles’ wounds, managing to stop the blood flow, although the blood loss, combined with the trauma of being captured, left Lee in a half-awake trance. Angelica knew from experience that he was unwilling to sleep, and was fighting against the both agents, no matter how many times Hercules tried to calm him down.

He kept mumbling about indiscernible things, struggling to rip the IV pump out of his arm.

Hercules looked exhausted. “This isn’t working.”

“You think?”

“He needs the blood but I can’t give it to him in this state! He’s caught in the moment where he’s still in that underground thing. I don’t know how to deal with anything like that.”

Angelica frowned. “Do you know anything about flashbacks though? Or panic attacks? Not necessarily this one, but maybe something might help.”

Hercules thought for a moment; he was silent for so long, Charles nearly succeeded in yanking out the needle that was inserted in his arm. Angelica rushed to his side and managed to swat his hand away.

“Maybe something or someone associated to a strong feeling, from his perspective. Like you tried to get John?”

“It was a joke. I really don’t know if he likes Charles.”

“But if it’s not love, then it could be hate. Those two loathe each other,” Hercules suggested. “We could try getting him to come in here or-”

“You kidding?” Angelica asked, shocked. “They’re gonna tear each other apart.”

“No, I get that,” Hercules explained patiently. “I’m saying that we can explain the situation, try to convince him…”

“He already refused,” Angelica pointed out.

“That was because you were acting suspicious!” Hercules groaned.

Angelica flipped him off and left the room.

John was reading the necropsy reports, as she expected, but he looked slightly dazed and exhausted. This wasn’t too new with him because he had a tendency to stay up way too late, but when she approached him, she saw his eyes were twitching.

“Hey John,” she said carefully.

John blinked twice and swiveled his chair to face her. “Yeah, what is it this time?”

Angelica ignored the warning tone in his voice and pushed forward. “You think you could help with the blood transfusion? Sorry for earlier, but we really need you this time.”

John studied her for such a long time, Angelica worried that he would refuse. But he seemed to understand that the reason he was needed was something else. Angelica really didn’t want to alert the other agents, especially Eliza, who was hovering nearby, to what most likely was a severe panic attack. She knew from experience that crowds just made it worse.

John didn’t respond, he just pushed back his chair and followed Angelica back to the medical wing.

The situation had escalated from the time Angelica had been gone. Without the extra help, Hercules couldn’t keep Charles from ripping the IV out. The needle now hung dripping onto the tile floor, staining the grout red. Charles himself looked deranged, although his energy reserves were running out quickly. If he didn’t calm down, he wouldn’t survive this.

John stopped in the doorway, looking horrified and Angelica rushed past him into the room. Hercules was struggling to pin Charles to the bed, who had now started fumbling for the nearby tray of tools, knocking it to the floor. Angelica quickly swept them away from his grasp, even as Charles lunged for it. Hercules tightened his hold until Charles screamed in pain.

“Herc!” Angelica gasped.

“Fuck!” Hercules immediately let go, and Charles scrambled away from him, nearly falling off the bed in his mindless panic. John pushed past both Angelica and Hercules and knelt besides his rival, gripping him by the shoulders. Charles was forced to look at him, eyes wide and unfocused.

“Charles. You need to snap out of it. C'mon. Breathe.”

Angelica always wondered how despite the two being their worst enemies, they seemed to know everything about each other. Maybe she hadn’t been far off in her speculation after all…

Charles was now taking large, shuddering gasps, like he had just come up for air. John nodded, his attention solely on the man in front of him.

“That’s it. Breathe.”

Hercules came to stand behind Angelica, his eyes wide. “Well, I’ll be damned. John seriously has a thing for him to care this much.”

Angelica laughed softly. “You think?”

And then Charles’ eyes cleared and he lurched away. “God, Laurens, get off me.”

Angelica saw an expression of relief flash across John’s face before it morphed into annoyance. “Wasn’t doing anything to you,” he responded, standing up.

Charles frowned up at hm before using the wall to push himself up and he managed to stagger in the direction of the bed. John’s hands twitched, like he was getting ready to catch him, but Hercules got there first and guided him to sit.

“Thanks for the help, John, Angelica, but I can take it from here.”

Taking the initiative, John nodded once and exited the room, holding the door open for Angelica as she passed.

“Never knew you actually had feelings for Charles,” Angelica teased once they were out of the medical wing.

John glared at her and turned away, his face red. “Shut up.”

“But really,” Angelica continued, more serious now. “How’d you know what to do?”

John shrugged, heading the direction of his computer. “Had some experience with PTSD people.”

“PTSD?” Eliza had heard their conversation and stopped them from walking any further. “What are you talking about?”

John exchanged a glance with Angelica, and when she inclined her head with permission, he said, “Lee has PTSD from being at George’s hell house.”

Eliza’s eyes widened, but she didn’t press any further. She turned her attention to Angelica. “Alexander is going to go scout in a few minutes. He wants to know if you feel like coming?”

The older woman shrugged. “I guess I will. Are you covering us?”

“No, Madison is.”

“What’s Laf doing? Can’t he help too?”

“Laf’s driving Thomas to his sister’s funeral. It’ll be pretty short because they want to keep her death a secret. You know how the government gets if they get wind of what happened. We already are on thin ice from all out public outings with George and that nonsense. And because no one knows why these people keep dying, there may be an FBI-related crap." Eliza handed her older sister a stack of folders. "Give twenty of those to Madison and then give the rest to Aaron and tell him that Theo’s got a target on her back. He’s either gotta track ‘em down or leave her.”

Thoroughly overwhelmed, Angelica made her way across the room to Madison, John’s laughter at Eliza’s spouting ringing in her ears.

She plopped the files onto Madison’s desk and when he looked at them, and then at her, she told him, “Eliza said to give these to you.” and left.

Burr was harder to find. Ever since he started dating Theodosia, he had started becoming more distant. Like Alexander, he was both a tech monitor and an assassin, and although the two had a liking to one-upping each other, they were pretty close friends.

She found him sitting at one of the monitors in the back room, pouring over long reports of who-knows-what. He looked up when she entered, looking slightly confused.

“Hey Angelica,” he greeted. “Is there something wrong?”

“Yes,” she answered. “Theo’s being targeted. Everything she does is being tracked, and that means they recorded you. Eliza told me that you can either eliminate them or remove yourself from her life because this is really serious.”

Burr stood, his voice barely concealing his panic. “Who’s targeting Theo?”

“George. Who else? You stole his guard’s girlfriend, of course he’s trying to do this to get revenge. Here,” she shoved the folders into his hands, “take that. Gives you everything you need.”

Burr took the files, staring at them like they were bombs. “Thanks. I need to warn Theo.”

Angelica chuckled dryly. “That would be encouraged if she wasn’t being monitored so closely. Just see what you can do.”

Burr nodded mutely and sat back down, already opening one of the folders. Angelica left the room, her concern now stretched in so many directions that she felt sick to her stomach. Seabury could get caught by George now that he had helped Washington, Charles could still die despite the transfusion, and now Theodosia was being tracked by George. God, George is the cause for all this.

A voice interrupted her thoughts, and she looked up to see Alexander standing in front of her.

“Angie? You ready to go?”

She nodded. “Just let me get some things and we can leave.”

Alexander followed her to the weapon storage, where she quickly sheathed at least two knives and holstered a second gun into her belt. “I have more ammo,” Alexander reminded her when she reached for the cartridge box.

“Right.” She put the box back and turned to leave. “Who’re we going after today?”

Alexander smirked. “Who do you think?”

“George?”

“Bingo.”

Angelica stiffened. “But, even with all this shit going on?”

Alexander shrugged. “Commander Washington said to, so I’m doing it. You in or not?”

“I am,” she sighed. “But don’t blame me for anything, alright?”

Alexander looked at her strangely, but didn’t ask anything else. “Cool, so the plan is that we walk because the car will be hard to hide with increased security-”

“Wait,” Angelica interrupted him, “there’s increased security?”

“Yeah, Mads found that George hired more Redcoats after the whole rescued captives thing.”

Angelica let out an annoyed breath. “We’re screwed.”


	10. transgressions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Samuel finally stands up for himself

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: implicit content

Alexander had no idea what he and Angelica would find at George's mansion. Angelica's knowledge only extended as far as the way to the ballroom and the security feeds Madison discovered weren't connected to the hallways. Lee was probably the only one who knew the most out of all of the agents, but he wasn't exactly in the best shape.

The sun was just starting to rise as the two assassins set off. It was cold out -- the wind whipped around them every step they took, the freezing blasts of air stabbing into Alexander's back, making him shiver. Angelica seemed no better off despite her scarf and large coat.

"H-how long until we get there?" Angelica asked between chattering teeth. "I don't remember how I got there because it was so dark."

"Some streets over," Alexander replied. "And then a few blocks north."

Angelica nodded and the two lapsed into silence, the only sound coming from their shoes tapping against the concrete sidewalk.

"We'll need to sneak around to a side window or something. Or at least, we need to know where the guards are posted," Alexander said.

"I got that," Angelica replied. "But are we planning on doing anything?"

Alexander gave her a sly grin. "I've got a machine gun."

Angelica laughed. "Of course you do." She shoved her hands into her coat pockets. "So that's why you brought all that ammo."

"Yeah. Thought it would be fun to shake them up a bit."

"We could get caught," she pointed out.

Alexander shrugged, the anticipation and adrenaline clouding his mind from rational thought. "We'll be fine," he assured her.

Neither assassin kept track of the time it took them to arrive, but they both noticed when the mansion came into sight. Alexander dove into a side alley, Angelica following.

"What's the plan?" she hissed, her breath condensing in the air in front of her.

"We can't try the rooftops in case of other security measures, so we'll have to go around back. Can't we use that entrance you did when you rescued Lee and Maria?"

Angelica shook her head. "Seabury said not to because they would be sure to block it off afterwards. We can use the rooftop method, but we just don't have to go onto his roof."

Alexander looked impressed. "Nice."

The two scaled the walls of the building, positioning themselves on the roof and, laying flat, inched their way to the edge, giving them a clear view of the mansion ahead of them.

"Wow," Alexander muttered, "that's huge."

Angelica didn't answer and instead busied herself in extracting her binoculars from her inside coat pocket. She put them to her eyes and refocused the lens. From her vantage point, she could see at least four guards at the entrance, two in the back and five stationed along the edge of the mansion that she could see.

"He's got a lot," she told Alexander, "and before, he had only two at the entrance and none anywhere else."

"I can see that from here." Alexander squinted. "It's their red coats. Makes it way too obvious to count them. I'm guessing he has five more on the other side as well."

"Then that makes sixteen." Angelica counted them again. "Yeah, sixteen. But there might be more inside. We can't know for sure."

"How much do you think he pays them?" Alexander asked, taking the binoculars to count for himself. "Must be expensive because all of them look bored out of their minds."

There was no answer.

"Angelica?"

He turned to see his partner already halfway back across the roof. "Where are you going?"

Angelica turned to face him and he was startled by the feral grin on her face. "How about we kill them?"

"All of them? How are we going to manage that? We can't do it quietly because there-"

"Not quietly," Angelica interrupted. "But loudly and in the open. You said you had a machine gun?"

"Two, actually. But what-"

“We can get payback for whatever hell they unleashed onto Lee and Maria. And have fun while doing it."

Suddenly understanding, Alexander returned her smile and pulled a machine gun from the inside of his coat (he managed to stuff two of them there because the coats were so large) and tossed it to her. "Then let's get started."

Angelica wasted no time in stuffing in her earplugs, taking a running start and leaping off the roof, firing dozens of rounds into the unlucky guard who happened to be below her.

Alexander jumped after her, choosing to wait until the others noticed the commotion (which wasn't long) and then unleaded a barrage of bullets, emptying at least three clips on only two guards and five on three more. He reloaded and took aim again.

Angelica had resorted to beating a guard over the head with her gun, which wasn't a bad tactic but was unnecessarily messy.

"Just finish him," Alexander shouted, and Angelica obeyed, rather reluctantly, pulling out a knife and stabbing the guard between the eyes.

The Redcoats from inside the mansion were now arriving on scene.

"We've got company!" Angelica warned.

Alexander was already turning his focus into the rush of guards. "Got it."

But these Redcoats were better prepared than the ones guarding outside. Within minutes, the two assassins were surrounded. Angelica's gun was knocked out her hands, her knife skittering across the floor before being crushed by a Redcoat's boot. Alexander was pushed to the ground so hard, he could hear his own head smack against the concert. Somewhere along there, he lost his grip on his gun.

This had not gone well and both assassins knew it. They were outnumbered and in a position where it was impossible to draw another weapon before getting a bullet through the head.

“What do we have here?” George’s voice rang out. Alexander could see the man in the corner of his eye as he approached. By the way Angelica had frozen, he knew that she recognized his voice as well.

George stopped in front of Alexander, his mouth curled into a smirk. “Ahh, I’ve heard of you. Alexander Hamilton, yes? And Angelina! How good of you to come again!”

Alexander noticed that George called Angelica by the wrong name, but he knew that the less information the wealthy man was given, the better. 

“Make them stand,” George ordered the Redcoats, and obligingly, they roughly pulled the two assassins to their feet. 

“I apologize for all the trouble this whole situation has been,” George began. “And so I decided that the only way this is going to get any better is if you two—” he pulled out a handgun and aimed it at Angelica’s head “—don’t have to witness it anymore. Doesn’t that sound wonderful?”

“Don’t we get a say in our death?” Alexander asked. “I mean, you’re going to kill us right here right now?”

George shrugged nonchalantly. “Does anyone here vouch for you?”

There was a long silence. 

“I didn’t think so.” George waved the gun in the air. “I’ll count to three, and at least give you that much. Because I’m so generous. Alexander, you’re up first.”

Alexander could practically feel Angelica roll her eyes in exasperation. He closed his own eyes, unwilling to look straight down the barrel.

“One.”

_I’m really sorry, John, for not saying goodbye._

“Two.”

_Am I really going to die this way?_

“Thr—”

“Wait!”

Alexander’s eyes flew open to the sight of Samuel Seabury. The young assassin looked slightly insane, his eyes wild behind his glasses. 

“I vouch for them,” Seabury said breathlessly. “Don’t kill them.”

George lowered the gun, looking at his employee in shock. “Sammy? What are you talking about?”

There was a _shink_ and suddenly Seabury was clutching a fifteen-inch knife in his right hand. “Let. Them. Go.”

George’s tone changed from surprise to sugar-sweet. “Sammy, don’t you think you are overstepping a bit? That kind of behavior will have you punished.”

Seabury flinched but held the knife up to point at George’s face. “Just let them go and I won’t kill you.”

George laughed condescendingly. “Kill me? You? Don’t be silly.”

Seabury’s eyes narrowed and he took another step closer. Alexander could hear the Redcoats around them tensing. “Let then go. Now.”

“But Sammy, dear,” George smiled. “You don’t want to help them, really? You belong to me.”

At that, Seabury looked slightly ill and his hand shook. “Please.”

George sidestepped the knife and Seabury didn’t protest. “You have so much potential. Just put the knife down and everything will go back to normal.”

“There is no normal,” Seabury answered, refusing to look at George. “There wasn’t any from the moment you set the requirements.”

George just laughed softly. “We can go back to whatever it was before this.” He trailed a hand down Seabury’s cheek. “Trust me.”

Seabury stiffened and his eyes flashed. “Don’t _touch_ me.” He slapped George’s hand away. “You lie, every time.”

“No more than you did when you helped Lee and Reynolds’ wife escape,” George replied, pressing his body against the younger man. “We are the same.”

Something inside Seabury seemed to snap and he thrust the knife forward into George’s gut.

Everyone froze. 

Alexander couldn’t breathe. He watched as Seabury withdrew the knife, face impassive, and as George stared at him in horror, casually wiped the blade onto his former employer’s shirt and stuck it back into his belt.

George didn’t move for a second; he just stood there, eyes wide and mouth open.

A dark red stain bloomed across his midsection, so large that Alexander knew he was pretty much a goner. 

And everyone watched as George Frederick collapsed onto concrete, dead.


	11. pressure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It boils down to the final fight.

Aaron had never been so scared in his life. Theodosia was not very good at self-defense, even though he had tried to teach her early on, knowing she’d be an easy target to get to him. But to hear for certain that George was after her—that was something he didn’t want to think to deeply about just yet. 

His numerous files on George only helped so much because all the accounts were of what not to do if you were a target. His phone was sitting tantalizingly on his desk, reminding him not to call Theodosia, lest he bring about her demise faster than George could carry it out. But when it rang, he scrambled to drop everything he was holding to pick it up. He was disappointed and relieved that it wasn’t Theodosia on the other end of the line, but Angelica.

“Tell Boss that George is dead,” the assassin yelled through the phone between gasps of air (it sounded like she was running) “and to expect an attack on headquarters any minute now!”

“What?” Aaron asked, but the phone line went dead. 

_Shit shit shit shit_. Aaron leapt up from his chair and raced out of the room, nearly colliding with Laurens, who was leaving the weapons closet. 

“Burr, what the hell?”

“No time,” Aaron gasped. “We’re going to be under attack. Angelica just called me.”

There were no questions asked. Attacks were rare because most people did not want to pick a fight with a roomful of trained assassins, but in the case of the Redcoats, they were matched for each assassin hand for hand. Laurens nodded and sprinted down the hall, yanking the alarm cord. A horn blared throughout the entirety of headquarters, red lights flashing. 

Washington grabbed Burr’s shoulder as he ran past, yelling over the alarm, “Redcoats?”

Burr nodded, and the Commander released him.

At that moment, the door exploded inward with a loud bang. A group of Redcoats, led by one James Reynolds, stood in the smoking doorway.

Immediately after entering, the Redcoats spread out. 

“Time to blow this place up,” Reynolds announced. “Where’s my Maria?”

He scanned the room of tech managers, most of them cowering behind their computers, but Eliza Schuyler was the only one who looked defiant. 

“You.” Reynolds pointed to her. “Where is Maria?”

Eliza merely glared at him. 

A lone Redcoat came running up to Reynolds. “She’s in the medical wing.”  
Reynolds nodded to the guard, shot a glare at Eliza, and strode to the medical wing. 

“Wait!” Eliza cried, running forward to stop him, but Reynolds didn’t look and just threw a knife over his shoulder at her, catching her in the shoulder. She cried out in pain and fell. Thomas crawled out from his hiding spot and managed to drag her behind a table to examine her wound. 

Reynolds continued into the medical wing but found Hercules Mulligan standing in his way. 

“Get out of the way,” Reynolds grunted. 

Hercules just cracked his knuckles. “I’m sorry, but you need a proper visitor’s pass in order to see the patients. I’m not seeing any ID there,” he waved a hand vaguely in Reynolds’ direction, “so I’m afraid that you need to leave.”

“Give me my Maria back!” Reynolds lunged. 

Hercules sidestepped the attack, but Reynolds pulled out a gun as he went past and shot him in the side.   
Hercules grunted in pain, letting Reynolds walk into the room the former had been guarding. 

Charles Lee was conscious enough to notice the bright red coat. He managed to shake Maria awake, who had somehow slept through the alarm.   
“Maria, your asshole husband is here.”

Maria jerked awake, her eyes wide. “James...”

“I’m here, Maria.” Reynolds would have stepped closer if not for the murderous look in her eyes. 

“Get away from me,” she spat.

“Maria, look—” he didn’t have a chance to finish as Maria, hate burning in her eyes, stepped forward and slapped him across the face, hard enough to make him drop his weapons. “Ow! What was that for?”

“For everything you did to me,” Maria replied. “The rape, the imprisonment, and the hell that George unleashed. I would kill you here if it weren’t for you being my husband. Unlike you, I won’t mistreat my loved one, if not, previously loved one. But luckily, I do have someone who will.”

Too soon, Reynolds realized that Lee, although bedridden with his injuries, still had enough strength to hold a gun. “Now wait a minute—”

 _Bang_. 

Reynolds dropped, a bullet put clean through his head. 

“Eww, now there’s more blood to clean,” Maria complained. 

Lee snorted with laughter, wincing in pain as it stretched his wounds. “You might wanna get Mulligan back in here. Sounded like he got shot.”

Maria nodded, and left the room, returning moments later with Hercules leaning heavily on her. “Here, can you treat your own wounds? I’ll clean up the blood.”

Hercules gaped at Reynold’s body, the gun still smoking on Lee’s bed, and the blood pooling around the Redcoat’s feet. “Yeah, I can.”

Maria patted him on the shoulder. “Good.”

The trio could hear fighting from the main room. The door swung open again and Thomas stumbled inside, supporting Eliza. “She got stabbed in the shoulder. I cleaned the wound, but I can’t do anything else to it.”

“Thanks, Thomas.” Maria took Eliza from him and led her over to the vacated chair. “Sit.”

Eliza sat, her eyes fixed on Maria.   
Thomas stayed in the room; kicking aside Reynolds’ body, he started to wipe up the blood. 

“I have a crush on you,” Eliza blurted, when Maria bent to tend to her wound.   
Maria blinked. “You what?”

“I have a crush on you,” Eliza repeated, her face flushing. “I don’t know, I’m sorry, that kinda slipped out.”

Maria just smiled gently at her. “Then I suppose it will do no harm for me to say I feel the same way?”

Eliza stared at her. “Really?”

“Mhm.”

“Wow.” Thomas broke the silence. “Is everyone gay here or what?”

“You are gay, though, right, Thomas?”

“Bi.” 

“Right. But what are you saying?” Maria’s voice had a note of confusion and warning in it. 

“I’m just saying there literally is no heterosexual pair within these walls. Not to be offensive or anything, because that also applies to me.”

There was a brief pause before Maria laughed. It released some of the tension within the room, despite the situation they were in. “You better be prepared for the others to come in, Herc,” she reminded the former tailor. “We’ve got a lot of trouble out there, and it’s gonna come into this room sooner or later.”

“I think it already did,” Hercules replied, pointedly glancing at the body on the floor. 

Thomas responded by leaving the room, yelling over his shoulder, “I’m going to go fight!”

“Have fun!” Eliza called back. 

The main room was a war zone, with bodies littering the floor. Luckily, all of the dead ones were Redcoats, and the severely injured ones that were on Thomas’ side were sent to the medical wing. 

Sometime while Thomas was with Maria and the others, Angelica, Hamilton, and Seabury had arrived on scene, and Thomas could finally appreciate the art of kicking ass. The three moved with such fluidity, it was a wonder how they couldn’t be defined by the term flexible. Because while both Angelica and Hamilton denied it, Thomas was convinced that they were lying for their own modesty. Or at least, maybe Angelica was, because Hamilton was anything but modest. 

Thomas was reminded of the fight when a knife whistled past his head. He ducked and spun towards his attacker, his leg outstretched, knocking the offending Redcoats to his knees. Madison appeared out of nowhere and stabbed the Redcoat in the back, killing him. 

“Thanks,” Thomas said. 

Madison grinned at him before vanishing into the the strobe-lighted, screaming crowd. 

Seabury streaked past him and slammed his hand on the emergency stop button for the alarm. Immediately, the noise died down and everyone stopped fighting from the sudden silence. 

“George Frederick is dead,” Samuel announced, his voice carrying around the room. “Reynolds is dead. This fight is over. This war is over. Redcoats, we will let the remaining number of you go as long as you leave us alone.”

“Whose side do you stand for?” A Redcoat bellowed. 

Samuel fixed him with a stare, which made the guard squirm under gaze. “I’m with Commander Washington. Anyone who questions it is welcome to come forward to challenge me.”  
No one moved. 

“You have ten seconds to leave,” Samuel continued. 

There was a mad rush for the door, as without a leader, the Redcoats knew they didn’t stand a chance. They left their dead behind as the door slammed shut behind him. 

The agents didn’t cheer, didn’t celebrate. They started picking up the pieces: helping the injured to the medical wing, cleaning up the ruined monitors and furniture, and dragging the bodies of the dead Redcoats outside to burn. Samuel made his way directly to Aaron Burr and Thomas Jefferson, both of whom were talking quietly in the corner. 

“Your wife will be fine,” he reassured the distraught assassin. “I sent her a message and she has moved. She’ll call you when the coast is clear.”

Aaron nodded, relief evident, and Samuel turned to Thomas. 

“I’m very sorry about your sister—”

“You’re good,” Thomas interrupted. “It wasn’t your fault, it was Reynolds’. He’s dead, so I’m satisfied.”

Samuel inclined his head slightly and drifted away to be met by Angelica. 

“God, I’m so glad that this is over,” she exclaimed. 

“Same here. I suppose you’ll be investigating George’s mansion after everything gets cleaned up?”

“Yeah.” Angelica replied. “It’s a good thing no one from our side got killed,” and seeing Samuel’s expression, added, “don’t worry, you are on our side now. If anyone has a problem, they should come to me.”

“I can take care of my own problems.”

Angelica shrugged. “Suit yourself, but the least we can do to thank you is allow you to be with us. I think you need good company, for once.”

Samuel tensed slightly, seeing that pitying look in her eyes. _She knew_. “Thank you,” he replied, meaning every word. “I appreciate it.”


	12. epilogue: trying to forget

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Issues get resolved.

George’s mansion turned out to be full of illegal weapons and other items of interest. Samuel had insisted on accompanying the investigating group to help clean out the place, but Angelica suspected it was because he wanted to see the whole mansion one last time. 

Because Commander Washington didn’t want to get the government involved, the agents were instructed to dispose of the weapons properly and carefully, lest the FBI catch wind of what had just transpired in the area. 

The surviving Redcoats had either disappeared, resorted to petty crimes (landing them in jail), or decided to lead a clean life for once. More than a few became friends with the agents, and became rather interesting assets to the team, as they were able to spy in places the assassins couldn’t on account of them not being well known. 

Peggy officially joined the team a few months later, after both Angelica and Eliza pleaded the Commander to let her be a part of the organization. She took a quick liking to Seabury, as they both loved the gory kills that no one else was willing to carry out. 

Charles fully recovered from his physical injuries, although his PTSD often kept him from partaking in anything related to George. John has yet to confess to him, even though the two of them were a bit more friendly to each other now. He struck up a stronger friendship with Samuel as well, and Peggy was anything but upset. 

John had gotten his baseball hat back, even though he barely remembered losing it, he happily accepted it and immediately placed it on his head. He wore it for three weeks in a row before he lost it again. 

Alexander continued his relationship with John, subjecting the two of them to teasing remarks from the rest of the agents.

Maria took Eliza out for lunch one night, and the following days announced themselves as girlfriends. Angelica and Peggy couldn’t have been prouder. 

James and Thomas continued their private life behind closed doors and whispered secrets, so no one bothered them that much about their relationship, even though everyone knew. 

Aaron took time off from the organization to be with Theodosia, which everybody, including Alexander, had been encouraging him to do. He refused to share where they were living, so no one questioned it. 

Lafayette and Hercules revealed a few weeks later that they were dating, which came as a surprise, as they had never shown amorous connection to each other before. 

Angelica and Eliza were set to be in charge of clearing out the Underground and George’s mansion. The sisters were an unstoppable duo, quickly disabling whatever other defenses the house contained, and combing through the rooms for any abnormalities. When Angelica came upon Samuel’s room, she understood fully what had happened. Hints had been dropped from Samuel’s interactions with George, but now she knew the truth. When Eliza tried to enter, she held her back. The secrets made in this room would stay in this room. 

Without anyone’s knowledge, Alexander paid a work crew to remodel the entire mansion after it was cleaned out. They set up rooms for the people within the organization, as some kind of private hotel. Samuel was relieved they had repainted the walls and replaced everything, including the cracked mirror. 

He had been having trouble erasing his memories, but was determined to get rid of them to creat new ones, and the remodeling of the mansion gave him new hope. 

Maria and Charles never fully recovered from their ordeal in the Underground, but then again, no one ever could forget what happened in just those few eventful days. 

But they could try, and that was enough for now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew! I finally finished this! Thanks to everyone who commented and kudo’ed. I appreciate it so much and thanks for sticking with me through this!


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so the question right now for this AU...

Should I write some bloopers for this story?  I already did it for my mishaps and homework au so I don't know, will it take away from the story or will it improve it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lolrip sorry


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